In the 1997 movie "Contact," Ellie Arroway is a young radio astronomer played by Jodie Foster. Ellie's on a mission to discover alien life, and in one famous scene filmed at the Very Large Array, she sits at the edge of the ...
Astronomy
Dec 9, 2022
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Against a backdrop littered with tiny pinpricks of light glint a few, brighter stars. This whole collection is NGC 1858, an open star cluster in the northwest region of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of our ...
Astronomy
Dec 5, 2022
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32
It's why Jaws swam out of sight for more than an hour, and it hints at the glamor of giftwrap. In movie theaters, living rooms, and even labs, the thrill of the unseen can be counted on to keep us guessing. But when it comes ...
Cell & Microbiology
Nov 17, 2022
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191
A team of scientists from the Department of Energy's Ames National Laboratory has developed a new characterization tool that allowed them to gain unique insight into a possible alternative material for solar cells. Under ...
Optics & Photonics
Nov 15, 2022
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A new planet-hunting instrument at W. M. Keck Observatory has achieved "first light," capturing its first data from the sky and marking an exciting chapter in the search for Earth-sized planets around other stars, which are ...
Astronomy
Nov 11, 2022
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15
An ultrathin dielectric meta-lens has been created that improves focusing capabilities but can also be scaled down to a tiny size for integration with photonics equipment.
Optics & Photonics
Oct 24, 2022
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14
Italian researchers have demonstrated experimentally for the first time that microorganisms can photosynthesize using the infrared-dominated light emitted by the most common type of star in the Milky Way. The results from ...
Astronomy
Sep 21, 2022
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7
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope shows off its capabilities closer to home with its first image of Neptune. Not only has Webb captured the clearest view of this distant planet's rings in more than 30 years, but its cameras ...
Astronomy
Sep 21, 2022
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1057
If you're going to break a rule with style, make sure everybody sees it. That's the goal of engineers at Rice University who hope to improve screens for virtual reality, 3D displays and optical technologies in general.
Optics & Photonics
Sep 12, 2022
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115
This interesting image from the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows a field of fascinating dunes called barchan dunes. These dunes have formed along a cliff in Chasma Boreale, in the North Pole of Mars.
Planetary Sciences
Sep 9, 2022
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